Absolutely Dreadful
by fleshflies
Summary: As punishment for Hathaway's cheek, he gets tasked with less than exciting case at a local Highschool. When Hathway comes at a standstill when trying to get information out of a bunch of unwilling kids a certain student is willing to help but for a small price of course.


Hathaway tapped his skeleton-like fingers against the setting wheel not to any beat in particular but to the beat of his annoyance at the oxford traffic. With each new addition to the line behind him his tolerance grew thinner. _God , he needed a cigarette._

He was due to visit a local high school and inquire about a new drug on the street that had already taken five students lives. And he was the least bit happy about it.

"Don't worry lad, you'll fit right in, You're only a few years their senior." the voice of his cheeky boss rang in his head when he assigned Hathaway the dreaded task as a consequence of his sarcastic humor and Innocent's lack of impatience that day. _The git._

He didn't enjoy high school one bit. And he didn't ever plan on returning to the dreaded place.

He was ever so slightly disappointed when the traffic started moving again, it only meant he was not far from Franklin East High School.

"Oi, that's enough year 11's, Charlie release Thomas from that headlock this instant!" A bespeckled young woman, fresh from college herself yelled, exasperated from the rowdy bunch.

"Now, this is Sergeant Hathaway from Oxfordshire police and he's going to talk to you while I get some painkillers for the massive headache your all given me. Play nice or I'm sure there's plenty of empty cells Sergeant Hathaway could put to use." Mrs Jones threatened as she made her leave, leaving a slightly intimidated Hathaway. He could deal with murderous criminals but children were a completely different story.

"So as Mrs Jones was saying I'm Sergeant Hathaway and I'm here to ask about the recently new drug called Zeon which has already taken kids your age. As I'm sure you're all aware. One boy from this school even. Does anyone has any information, please tell me now." Hathaway said but was just met with mostly blank stares. Apart from one, who had a large smirk. Hathaway knew better than to call her out. Not the best tactic. _God he needed a cigarette._ He left the room after another minutes stony silence with a sigh, wishing that British law allowed interrogation of minors. Without preppy parents.

This brought him back, smoking behind the bike sheds in his younger years. _Why do all schools have to be smokefree these days?_

"You're not going to get anything out of them, if that's what you think" James looked up at the voice, it was the girl from earlier who had sat there and smirked the whole time. She squeezed in the tight gap and stood opposite James. Pulling out her own packet of cigarettes and lighting her own.

James had to tip his hat at the girls cockiness "You do know I'm a police officer right?" James said taking a long drag, eyeing the smoke that lazily floated out of her mouth.

"I know , you won't arrest me though" The teen retorted with an air of confidence.

"Why's that?" James said not quite believing the girls nerve

"Cause I know how to get the information you need" She said, satisfaction clear in her voice.

"What do you suggest then?" James said humoring the teen's so-called "information"

"It will cost you." The teen said exhaling a puff of smoke

"Don't push it, I'm already doing you a favor by not taking you down to the station" James spoke harshly.

"Isn't that a job for uniform?" The girl inquired, a smug smile creeping onto her face.

"Just tell me what you know about the drug" He said, becoming frustrated at her knowledge, and that she was right.

"I can do better than tell you, I can show you" the girl said stepping on her cigarette and walking towards the media department, expecting the blonde man to follow. Without any success from his previous leads he didn't have anything to lose but to follow the arrogant teen.

The teen lead Hathway into what looked like a sort of common room for the students.

The girl climbed onto a chair that was underneath some sleeves, James was wondering what she was doing until she chucked some books on the ground and uncovered a small camera, nestled just out of sight.

"If there was any drug dealing going on, it would be in here, nobody goes in here so that's what makes it the perfect place." She explained.

"Why do you have cameras set up here in the first place?" He questioned. _This girl didn't look like the narking type._

"This isn't the only place I've got cameras set up, I aim for authenticity in my films and students aren't going to be very authentic if they know they're being filmed" The girl explained as if secretly filming students without their permission was completely fine as long as it benefited herself and her film.

She plugged in her laptop to the tv and brought up 24 hours of footage. James thought it was a dead end when nothing happened or anyone even entered the room and went to leave "Wait, there they are" The teen said, Hathway sat back down on the couch that looked like it had seen better days. He watched the clip that the was girl was talking about. Four shaggy-haired boys entered the room, including the boy who was now in Laura's lab, thinking rightly that they weren't being secretly filmed. They talked openly about the new drug in question and how much to sell it for. James had enough evidence to prosecute the boys and call it a day he went to leave with the SD card before the teen blocked his way and snatched the SD card out of the policemans hands.

"I told you it would cost you" She reminded him

"What do you have in mind then" He said quickly, eager to finish his day's work.

"Your packet of ciggies and credit in the police report you write"

"You sure know a fair bit about the police" James said suspiciously as it was highly uncommon for teens her age to know more than "they arrest people".

"Yeah well let's just say we got a history" She shrugged

"Well that's a shame cause you wouldn't be doing much filmmaking behind bars" the police men's words seemed to wipe the smug expression off the girl's face.

"Have a good day…." Hathaway asked politely, sort of.

"Rosina, Rosina Meredith" The girl answered, a slight Scottish accent creeping into her voice when she did.

"You too, Sergeant James Hathaway" The girl said chucking back the man's wallet she had nicked earlier. James frowned, everything was still there apart from a tenner, he decided to leave the tenner and the exhausting day behind him as he headed back to the station.

 _ **Later that day**_

"Come on then, how was it?" Robbie said placing a much-needed coffee on his sergeant desk as Hathaway wrote up the report.

"Absolutely dreadful" James replied moodily, but truthfully, as he signed off the report with "Assisted by a little shit called Rosina Meredith"


End file.
